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The Corbomite Maneuver (episode)
Exploring a distant region of space, the Enterprise is threatened by Balok, commander of a starship from the First Federation. Summary The ''Enterprise'' is exploring a region of space that has not previously been mapped by the Federation. While photographing and mapping it, they encounter a curious cube. This marker buoy appears to be a solid object, but can nevertheless move and track the ship. When they attempt to pull away, it begins to threaten them with radiation, forcing them to destroy it in order to save themselves. They continue to travel in the direction from which the cube approached. Part of their mission is to encounter new civilizations, and Kirk hopes to meet the one that dispatched the cube. And he does; the Enterprise is approached by an immense ship, the Fesarius, flagship of the First Federation. It seizes the Enterprise with a powerful tractor beam, and its captain, Commander Balok informs the crew that they are to be destroyed. Kirk and Balok play a mental cat-and-mouse game; Kirk advises Balok that an attempt to destroy the Enterprise will result in the destruction of the Fesarius via corbomite, a material and a device that protects Federation ships. Balok relents, and dispatches a small pilot ship to tow the Enterprise to a planet of the First Federation, where the crew will be interned and the ship destroyed. The Enterprise crew manage to free themselves, disabling Balok's pilot ship in the process. When they beam over to render aid, Balok gleefully advises them that they have passed his test. He wanted to see what kind of people the Federation officers were, and he did not want to trust their records; he wanted a demonstration of actual behavior. At the end, Kirk, McCoy, and Bailey sample Balok's favorite drink, tranya. Kirk leaves Bailey with Balok as part of a cultural exchange. Memorable Quotes "What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?" :- Doctor McCoy "If I jumped for every light that went on around here, I'd end up talking to myself." :- Doctor McCoy (with no one else in the room) "We've got phaser weapons, I vote we blast it!" "I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Bailey - when this becomes a democracy." :- Captain Kirk and David Bailey "This is tranya. I hope you relish it as much as I." :- Balok "Yes, we're very much alike, Captain - both proud of our ships." :- Balok "You have an annoying fascination for timepieces, Mr. Sulu." :- Scott as Sulu keeps track of the countdown to the destruction of Enterprise * "Our respect for other life forms requires that we give you this... warning. One item not recorded in any ship's tapes is... Corbomite. It is a substance and a device that prevents... attack on us. Should any destructive energy touch the ship, an enery of equal or greater strength is returned, destroying--" "Eight minutes." "--destroying the attacker. It may interest you to know that since the introduction of Corbomite, more than two of our centuries ago, no attacking vessel has survived the attempt. Death has little meaning to us... if it has none to you, then attack us now. We grow annoyed at your foolishness." -- Kirk's bluff, with Balok's time check "If, uh, anyone's interested... thirty seconds." :- Sulu, continuing his fascination as time runs out "I regret not having learned more about this Balok. In many ways, he was reminiscent of my father." "Then may heaven have helped your mother." "On the contrary; she considered herself a most fortunate earth woman." :- Spock, Scott as Kirk's bluff brings a reprieve. "A most interesting game, this... poker." "It ''does have its advantages over chess."'' "Love to teach it to you." :- Spock, Kirk, McCoy *"That dummy..." "My alter ego, so to speak. In your culture, he would be Mr. Hyde to my Jekyll. You must admit, he's effective -- you would never have been frightened by me. It was a pleasure testing you." "Testing us?" "I had to discover your real intentions." "But you scanned our tapes." "Your records could have been a deception on your part." -- Kirk, Balok and Bailey "Ah, you represent Earth's ''best, then."'' "No, sir, I'm not; I'll make plenty of mistakes." "But you'll learn more about us that way; and I'll get a better officer in return." :- Balok, Bailey, Kirk "The reason I raised my voice back there was because I have this thing called an adrenal gland." "A most inconvenient organ; I would consider having it removed." (to Sulu) "Very funny." (sotto voice) "Try to cross brains with Spock -- he'll hack you to pieces every time." :- Bailey, Spock, Sulu Background Information * You can watch for tell-tale signs of this early production such as a bridge chair squeaking rather loudly near the end of the episode (when Uhura is listening in on Balok's distress call), as well as hearing the ship doors, made of 20th century wood, slide on the stage floor as they opened and closed, making a solid wood-on-wood 'swoosh' that had yet to be edited out. * The distinctive rising and falling bridge sound effect that we most associate with 'Star Trek' is first heard in this episode. The effect did not originate with 'Star Trek', however. Early episodes of "The Twilight Zone", notably "Execution" from 1960, feature this distinctive sound effect for computers. * The set of Balok's room was later recycled to create the bar in "Court Martial". * The "tranya" served by Balok was actually grapefruit juice. Clint Howard had to pretend very hard to like the drink, which he found distasteful! * A nice detail of this episode was having the colors of the cube buoy reflected on the railings at the front of the bridge. When this perspective was later re-used as the stock view screen shot for the next three seasons, the reflecting lights still showed up on the railings. * Also filmed for this episode was George Takei's reaction shot in which he turned around and looked at Kirk, reused in dozens of future episodes whenever something strange appeared on the viewscreen. A similar clip would be filmed of Walter Koenig during season two. * In one of the series' most famous bloopers, a line from Balok warning the crew they had one minute left was not recorded, leaving Sulu to comment, "I knew he would" in response to nothing. The preview has an unused cut of Balok saying, "We grant you one minute" that could be modified and dubbed into the episode. * There are nice close-ups of some of the engineering read-outs in this episode. * The unique phaser burst that the Enterprise fires at the warning buoy is seen only in this episode. * The camera shot of the ship being towed by the small First Federation pilot vessel, from a perspective behind the nacelles, would be re-used countless times in future episodes, with different ships or planets matted in. When it was used later, it was often slowed down, which made it much more grainy than the clear print in this episode. * In this episode and Mudd's Women, Uhura wears a gold uniform. * Although we never learn the dimensions of the Enterprise during the series, it is much bigger than the cube. Sulu says the cube is 107 meters on a side. This would make the Enterprise thousands of meters long. * Strange that Spock wouldn't know about poker. At any rate I doubt he'd enjoy the game since he said in "The Doomsday Machine" that Vulcans do not bluff. * Some of the extras on the bridge after the cube's destruction are wearing turtleneck uniforms left over from The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before. * This episode was nominated for Hugo Awards in 1967 as "Best Dramatic Presentation". * Engineering is established by dialogue to be on Deck 5. Kirk orders Bailey to coordinate drills with engineering, and Bailey says on two distinct occassions "Come on, Deck 5, give me the green light!" and also "Engineering Deck 5, report! Come on phaser crews, let's get with it!" Since the engineering room is two decks thick, and if it's near the impulse engines, that means the lower level of the saucer's "rim" is Deck 5. This also means that the bubble-shaped structure right under the bridge is only one deck. Deck 3, which has a lot of science labs, then has to be the hump on top of the saucer, and Deck 4 becomes the upper level of the rim decks. Note either the location of engineering is changed or there is another engineering room in the cigar-shaped secondary hull later on in season one, in episodes like "The Enemy Within" and "Conscience of the King" in which engineering is said to be in the lower bowels of the ship where people don't usually go to, or are sent to be on duty if they're being punished. * When Sulu announces there is one minute left on the timer, the timer actually reads: "2:02...2:01...1:00 (the 2 minute marker changes to 1 as the 1 second marker changes to 0) ...1:59," suggesting there are actually two minutes left. Afterwards, they only show the seconds. Script vs. Screen Even the Final Draft of this script, dated 3 May 1966, is quite different than the aired version. * The character of Uhura is not present. Dave Bailey is the Communications Officer (and he does not "flip out" as he does in the aired episode). * Lieutenant Ken Easton is the Navigator. * Many bits of character-building are also absent. There are no flypaper, chess or poker analogies--Kirk simply decides to bluff Balok out of the blue, no green leaves, no curiosity on Spock's part as to what Balok looks like--Balok initiates visual contact with the Enterprise. * Spock offers no opinion that Balok reminds him of his father. Scott offers no pity for Spock's mother. * The planet where Balok intends to imprison the Enterprise crew is named Carpi. * This episode is available on VHS through Amazon under ISBN 6300213072, 2-episode DVD (with Where No Man Has Gone Before) under ISBN 6305513406 Links and References Regular Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand Guest Stars * Anthony Call as David Bailey * Clint Howard as Balok * Vic Perrin as the voice of Balok * Ted Cassidy as the voice of the Balok puppet * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * William Blackburn as Hadley * Frank da Vinci as Brent * Ron Veto as Harrison * Sean Morgan as Harper * Mittie Lawrence as Crew Woman * Ena Hartman as Crew Woman * Gloria Calomee as Crew Woman * Bruce Mars as Crewman * John Gabriel as Crewman * Jonathan Lippe as Crewman * Stewart Moss as Crewman * George Bochman as Crewman * Jeannie Shepard as Crew Woman * Unknown actor as Bobby Many of the extras credited as crewmembers in this list were edited from the final print. Sean Morgan, Bruce Mars and Stewart Moss are nowhere to be seen in the episode. References adrenaline; Balok's cube; Bobby; ''Constitution''-class interior; corbomite; Fesarius; First Federation; poker; quarterly physical; recorder-marker; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; tranya. Corbomite Maneuver, The de:Pokerspiele fr:The Corbomite Maneuver nl:The Corbomite Maneuver sv:The Corbomite Maneuver